We Must Remember Forgotten Genocide

April 27, 2003|By Michael Minassian

Every April, I take time to reflect on the missing members of my family, murdered during the forgotten genocide, the first of the 20th century. Among those dead are a great uncle, an aunt, an uncle and countless cousins and other relatives. They were among the almost 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the Turkish government. Although the killings continued until at least 1920, April 24, 1915 has been designated to commemorate the innocent victims.

Subjects of the Turkish government, Armenians had lived in fear for many years before the outbreak of World War I when the killings intensified. In the late 19th century, wholesale slaughters of Armenians took place, many of them witnessed and documented by Western diplomats. Estimates of those earlier massacres range from a conservative 300,000 to a possible high of 800,000.

In 1907, after the Young Turk revolution overthrew the sultan, Armenians had looked hopefully to the new government. However, the new leaders of Turkey were even more committed than ever to the doctrine of pan-turkism. Led by Attaturk and Talaat Bey, the government began their own "final solution." Ten years later, years marred by betrayal and bloodshed against the Christian Armenians, Turkey entered World War I on the side of Germany. With the full knowledge and support of the Axis powers, the Young Turks planned to put an end to the Armenian question.

This precursor to the Nazi's genocide of the Jews led Hitler to remark at the beginning of his own campaign: "But who remembers the Armenians?"

Setting out on a careful strategy designed to eradicate an entire race, the Turkish government first imprisoned and killed the intellectuals and leaders of the Armenian community, doing so with such impunity that they dared to display the decapitated heads of Armenians in the shop windows of Istanbul. Then the government killed off the male population, frequently emptying entire towns and villages and slaughtering men and young boys within sight of their homes. The next step was the deportation of women and children to the deserts of northern Iraq, raping and killing as they went. Those who survived the terror and starvation made their way to Syria, Lebanon and other countries of the Middle East.

Even in the face of overwhelming historical evidence, the Turkish government has continually refused to admit that any massacres took place. They still attempt to distort and hide the truth by claiming the Armenians were engaged in subversive activities against Turkey during a global war. This is like Germany claiming the Jews were exterminated for political activism against the Nazis or the Cambodians saying the Khmer Rouge were merely cleaning house against potential saboteurs.

This kind of denial and silence on the part of Turkey and other members of the international community since 1915 can only continue to have disastrous results. A pattern has been established in the 20th century that is likely to continue: a pattern of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Armenians, Jews, Cambodians, Eritreans, Kurds, Rwandans and several groups within the former Yugoslavia have all become victims.

It has been estimated that almost two-thirds of the total population of Armenia was murdered. Today only about 60,000 remain in Turkey. About 3 million reside in the Republic of Armenia, besieged by Turkey's ally Azerbaijan. Other Armenians are scattered throughout the world, including more than 1 million here in the United States.

Since the Armenian population of Turkey in 1915 was estimated at 2.3 million, it is clear that something horrendous and of frightening proportions had taken place. In fact, almost every Armenian today can connect to the genocide. Each family lost members. When he was 10, my dad's father watched his grandfather beheaded by a Turkish soldier.

A few years later, he was orphaned by other soldiers. In 1912, he fled to the United States after his first wife and infant son were murdered.

On my mother's side, the litany of the dead is equally long: cousins, aunts, uncles, great-grandparents all slaughtered. My grandmother, then 14, survived a death march through the Syrian desert and was miraculously reunited with her mother and sister in a refugee camp in Lebanon. There she washed sheep in the Mediterranean in exchange for food and shelter.

As the Armenian community once again prepares to mark the anniversary of the massacres, it is clear that to many others, this truly is the forgotten genocide. Although the United Nations in 1986 passed a resolution officially declaring the events of 1915 a genocide, most individual nations continue to ignore the facts. This is something we cannot afford in light of the history of the 20th century. If future genocides are to be avoided, none must be forgotten.

Michael Minassian is a professor of English at Broward Community College. He lives in Pembroke Pines.